Sales of veteran-themed lottery ticket wane

By Peggy Fikac |
October 1, 2012
| Updated: October 1, 2012 10:30am

Texas Lottery Veterans Cash ticket, featuring John Wayne
¥ The proceeds from the sale of this ticket will help the Texas Fund for Veterans Assistance!
¥ Over $13.4 million in prizes in this game!
¥ Pack Size: 125 tickets
¥ Guaranteed Total Prize Amount = $119 per pack

More Information

About the Fund for Veterans Assistance: Administered by the Texas Veterans Commission, it was created in 2007 but had little money before the Veterans Cash ticket was created. It has awarded $20.8 million in 86 grants to 70 nonprofit and local government entities. As of July 31, those receiving grants have served 138,560 Texas veterans.

Gap: In the grant solicitation for January 2012, 92 organizations requested $24 million. A total of $2.3 million was awarded to 11 organizations.

Examples of groups that have received grants:

Project MEND (Medical Equipment Network for those with Disabilities) in San Antonio: provides funding for assistive technology services, including specialized or fitted devices such as prosthetic, orthotic devices

Alamo Area Mutual Housing Association: provides housing, temporary financial assistance and other services to veteran families who are homeless or at risk of becoming so

Family Services of Greater Houston: provides financial assistance and guidance in navigating community resources

United Way of Greater Houston: provides information and referral services.

Source: Texas Veterans Commission, Texas Lottery Commission

Veterans Cash lottery ticket

The scratch-off game is a $2 ticket offering a $20,000 top prize. After prizes and other expenses, ticket revenues go to the Fund for Veterans Assistance. The ticket was created by legislation in 2009, and is the only lottery ticket whose revenues are dedicated to a cause other than education.

AUSTIN - The veterans scratch-off lottery ticket was created as a way for Texas to fund key programs that had gone begging, the state game's only ticket with proceeds dedicated to something other than education.

In the three years since Veterans Cash was launched, the $2 ticket has provided some $20.8 million to help veterans with everything from medical-related equipment to housing and counseling.

The specialty game's popularity, however, has cratered, even as the lottery is posting record sales overall, a drop that officials say is typical because players like the next new thing. Legislators are looking for a way to stoke interest or find other revenue for much-needed veterans programs.

Van de Putte also would like to see more foundation grants going to the Fund for Veterans' Assistance, which is overseen by the Texas Veterans Commission. "I would love a little GR (state general revenue) in there. But GR is scarce. Look at how badly we cut public schools."

Besides lottery revenue and general donations, the fund gets money from a contribution option tied to motor vehicle registration. The lottery still provides the bulk of the funding - 91 percent in 2012.

Fewer grants

The Fund for Veterans' Assistance contained just $11,200 as the lottery-ticket measure made its way through the Legislature in 2009, according to the House Research Organization. Veterans Cash was a boon, with ticket sales yielding $7.3 million in fiscal 2010 and $8.1 million in 2011 for the fund, according to the Texas Lottery Commission. The fund got $526,267 more in unclaimed prize money from the ticket in 2011.

In fiscal 2012, however, the fund received just $4.7 million in ticket sales revenue and $561,748 in unclaimed prizes. The Lottery Commission projects sales will remain at the lower level.

That means the Texas Veterans Commission - which awards grants from the fund to nonprofit and local government entities - is likely to turn down more applications than it already does. The commission in 2011 had 190 applications and funded 37.

"The funding has been decreasing, and competition and need is rising," said Lea Rosenauer, development director of Project MEND, Medical Equipment Network for those with Disabilities, in San Antonio.

Family Services of Greater Houston received grants of $208,759 this year and last year for case management and emergency financial assistance for veterans and dependents, serving 573 last year.

One of those was Marine veteran Adriel Cardenas, 40, of Houston. Cardenas, who served 20 years in the military, is a married father of three and a college student.

"I couldn't pay the rent. … I was getting kind of desperate," said Cardenas. The program, which he called "a lifesaver," set him up with a financial planning class and paid the family's rent and electricity bill for a month.

Texas is not the only state that has faced falling revenues for some specialty-game tickets. In Illinois, Lottery Superintendent Michael Jones is retooling the approach to games, including one for veterans, the revenues of which have dropped over the years.

Jones changed advertising agencies and is brainstorming ideas, including a notion to offer non-cash prizes for the veterans' game, such as landing a jet on a carrier or pulling the lanyard on a 105 mm howitzer.

"There's a lot you can do with these special- interest games if you think about them differently," Jones suggested.

Ideas to raise funding

In Texas, members of Van de Putte's committee have offered ideas for increasing funds for veteran programs, such as spending money from the general unclaimed prize fund on marketing the ticket or to directly benefit the veterans fund.

"What the Lottery Commission says is, this is pretty much the normal lifespan of a ticket. But we'll keep monitoring and see," she said. "But anything is better than nothing, and before this, we had nothing."